Final call on dirty coal power

Hundreds of protesters have amassed on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne today, calling on the Victorian and Federal Governments to cancel a new dirty coal project in the Latrobe Valley.

After years of campaigning by Greenpeace and other environmental groups, decisions will be made in the coming weeks that will either make or break the proposed “HRL” brown coal power station.

If you want to know what our campaign to stop HRL is all about, check out this two-minute clip:

Attending the rally were two members of Federal Parliament, ALP member for Wills, Kelvin Thompson MP and Greens member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt MP. Both MPs will be taking the campaign to stop HRL to Canberra in the coming weeks. Next week, Mr Thompson will be tabling a petition signed by 12,667 Australians and organised by Greenpeace and Environment Victoria. The petition demands that a taxpayer-funded grant worth $100 million to HRL be withdrawn and that money is invested in renewable energy instead. Mr Bandt will then force a debate and vote in Parliament on the issue of cancelling HRL’s funding.

Back in Victoria, a court case in the Victorian and Civil and Administrative tribunal will resume next week, challenging the works approval granted to HRL last year by the Victorian EPA.

Last week an opinion piece by Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Julien Vincent outlined the eleven best reasons why HRL’s $100 million grant should be cancelled. Addressing today’s rally, he said “the environment movement has made stopping HRL’s dirty coal project as easy as falling off a log. For a Prime Minister who promised no more dirty coal-fired power stations and having risked her political skin to bring in a carbon price, cancelling HRL’s public funding should be an absolute no-brainer.”